Grand Opening: A Look Inside Ralph Lauren’s New Store

“It’s the accessories that really make the outfit!” declared Mayor Bloomberg on Thursday evening as he handed Ralph Lauren the key to the city—with an “I Love New York” key-ring thrown in for playful good measure. “We can no longer say ‘They don’t build them like this anymore,’” he added surveying Mr. Lauren’s palatial new establishment. They do!” And indeed one might be forgiven for thinking that this was a restoration—perhaps a tad too scrupulous—of the sort of faux Louis Seize mansions built for the robber barons of turn of the century Manhattan.

But Ralph’s magnificently grandiloquent (and giddily feminine) riposte to the 1898 Rhinelander Mansion opposite (that he transformed into his flagship store twenty five years ago) has indeed been built from the ground up, all 22,000 square feet of it, complete with sweeping ambassadorial staircase and enfilades of elaborately paneled rooms lit with coruscating crystal chandeliers. “It’s great to be in a small building that was built on a budget,” laughed the mayor before a crowd of quintessential New Yorkers—Charlie Rose, Vera Wang, Jerry Seinfeld and Martha Stewart among them. But of course the whole establishment throbs with the promise of economic upturn—from the made-to-measure department for suavely tailored pieces, and “luxury sleepwear,” (airy nothings in satin and lace presented in a Hollywood boudoir environment)—both unique to the store—to the fine jewelry boutique where chandelier earrings of diamond and rock crystal are presented in shadow boxes framed in black alligator. Ralph’s collection jewels are shown alongside vintage costume jewels—brooches of Whitby jet and paste shoe buckles mounted on alligator cuffs—and an artfully curated collection of ravishing antique fine jewels.

If one’s budget is humbler, there is also an on-site department for custom monogramming the signature polo shirts (as well as bed linens and bath towels), for instance—in a matter of minutes.

“This is the great American system,” said Mayor Bloomberg, pointing to Ralph’s self-made trajectory from a childhood in the hardscrabble Bronx. No wonder Ralph, surveying his eminent domain, allowed a touch of emotion as he announced “I’m proud to be a New Yorker.”